Tracking Midnight
by mewsugarpudd
Summary: Just a quick one shot. Cobra returns from wiping out a dark guild, only to be sent after Midnight who had drifted away from the cave. After catching up to his fellow mage, Cobra has a conversation that helps him get just a little bit closer to his friend. Pure fluff with a ting smidgen of angst thrown in.


Just a cute little idea I thought up while re-watching the Oracion Seis arc with my sister who is obsessed with Midnight and has been begging me for a story about him. So I hope you appreciate this Kisshufan4ever. It is set just before the start of the Oracion Seis arc, however, Midnight will be awake in this story so just assume that he goes back to sleep afterwards.

Disclaimer : I do not own Fairy Tail (though I like to pretend that Gray is mine.)

* * *

Cobra was annoyed to put it mildly. He had returned only a few hours ago from a mission to dispatch a pesky light guild, and just as he had entered the forest in which they were currently staying while tracking down Nirvana, Brain had conatcted him saying that Midnight had somehow managed to drift away and Brain needed Cobra to retrieve him. Why he didn't send one of the others who hadn't been crushing a light guild, Cobra wanted to ask, but you didn't question Brain lightly, especially not over something as petty as this. he had sent Cubellios on ahead to the cave, no point in them both suffering.

At least Midnight wasn't too hard to follow. The beads in his hair clacked together loudly, or at least it was loud to Cobra's superior hearing. The beads would be way to quiet for a normal person to hear. Cobra sighed. Even if Midnight wasn't hard to follow, it was still a pain to be tracking through the forest after him, especially as Cobra had a pretty annoying gash on his leg from where one of the light mages had gotten a cheap, lucky shot in. All though he had bandaged it before even attempting to return, the journey had reopened the wound, and blood was now cloying his pants.

Suddenly, Cobra stumbled into the clearing where his fellow guildmate's flying carpet had stopped. And his expression turned to horror when he realised that the other mage was awake and standing at the edge of a small waterfall. Midnight only really awakened when a situation was serious, why he was awake now surely couldn't be good.

"Midnight?" Cobra spoke hesitantly, praying that Midnight wasn't abut to go on some sort of destructive rampage. Sure he saw the other boy as a friend - one of his only friends in fact - but the other wasn't exactly known for being cheerful when awake. Midnight turned slowly, and his crimson orbs locked onto his own brown eyes.

"Cobra..." Midnight trailed off, and resumed staring into the pool. Cobra loathed to ask this, but he didn't want to invoke Brain's rage upon himself.

"Does your father know that you are awake?" Cobra was shocked when Midnight actually flinched slightly.

"I couldn't sleep in there." Midnight spoke simply, though he avoided Cobra's question. Cobra took that as a bad sign.

"So your father doesn't know." Midnight glared at him harshly, and Cobra recoiled slightly. Guildmate or not, Midnight was terrifying when angry.

"Does it matter. In the end we will both return to him anyway. We always return to him." Midnight sat down and trailed his hand in the water. Cobra cautiously sat beside him.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" Cobra decided that the fastest way to return to the cave would be to soothe whatever was bothering his friend. And he was a little worried, though he would probably never admit that.

"I could remember that place, the place where they wouldn't let me sleep in peace. And it was so noisy. Crying. Screaming. Angry words." Midnight hunched over, and suddenly clicked.

"You had a nightmare about the tow... that place." Cobra chose to use Midnight's description of the place. Truthfully, the name still sent spears of dread into his stomach. His friend remained silent, and Cobra took this as confirmation of his statement.

"We all get them, you know?" Cobra muttered, a little ashamed of the admittance, but willing to confess if it would help Midnight. The red eyes turned to him with a slight trace of disbelief, and if they were more shimmery than usual, Cobra refrained from commenting.

"Really?" Midnight's question was barely audible, even to Cobra's ears. He tilted his head towards the sky before replying.

"Racer, he tosses and turns and mumbles about never being fast enough. Angel wakes crying about falling from the sky. Hoteye, though he is one of the most cunning with hiding the signs, sobs about his litlle brother when he thinks no one can hear him." Midnight looked a little overwhelmed at this information.

"What about you?" Cobra cursed under his breath, he had been hoping that Midnight hadn't caught on to the fact that he hadn't mentioned himself.

"I dream of losing Cubellios, of being locked in away for eternity. Of losing my hearing. Of losing everyone." Midnight seemed to mull this over.

"I don't just dream about the tower," Midnight mumbled "I also dream about father rejecting me and of... of being alone. I don't want to be alone Cobra." The honesty in this confession was heartwrenching.

"None of us want to be alone. That's why we've got to stick together. We aren't going to leave you, even if you are a pain in the butt, drifting away into the middle of a forest." This recieved a genuine, happy smile from Midnight, something that Cobra hadn't seen in a while.

Of course, that had to be the moment when Midnight noticed his bloody leg.

"You're bleeding." Midnight commented, softly.

"Ah, it ain't that bad. But we really should be heading back soon." Cobra could hear that Brain was getting impatient, he was addressing the others in amuch crueler way. Cobra winced at the earful Hoteye was getting. Midnight observed his flinch.

"It will be best if you share my carpet with me to get back. Father will not be pleased if you pass out on the way back." Cobra kind of wanted to protest that he could walk, but this might be his only opportunity to ride the magic carpet without the other mage kicking him off. He gratefully settled on the front and Midnight sat behind him. Cobra was surprised when Midnight's hand snaked forward and caught his.

"What if I have another nightmare?" He implored.

"You won't." Cobra's voice radiated confidence, and he could hear Midnght's confusion.

"Why?"

"Because you know that I'm here and that I won't be leaving you. And the others wont leave you either." Midnight seemed to accept this as he released Cobra's hand and swiftly fell back asleep. Cobra shook his head. He hoped that he had helped Midnight enough, otherwise the earful he would be getting from Brain over how long hos return had taken wouldn't be worth it.

But even with the possibility of Brain punishing him, Cobra couldn't help smiling, exposing his pointed fangs. Maybe his friendship with Midnight had gotten stronger today. And maybe Cobra liked that thought.

* * *

So, yeah, just a quick oneshot for my sis, I hope that they weren't too out of character.


End file.
